Tuesday, June 7, 2016

WWE Battleground 2015 Review

The Undertaker makes his shocking return!

WWEBattleground 2015

St. Louis, Missouri 7/19/15

Pre-Show

1.) King Barrett vs. R-Truth: **1/4

Yep, this feud is still going on. This time, Barrett’s King Of The Ring Crown is, in fact, on the line here. Not much to say here, other than it was a little better than their pre-show match from Money In The Bank 2015. Barrett gets the win here, and retains his crown.

PPV

1.) Randy Orton vs. Sheamus: ***1/2

Now these two have faced off (what seems like) a million times. Thus, I wasn’t expecting much going into this match. To my surprise, this match actually wasn’t that bad. It was, dare I good. I don’t know what it was, but these two managed to actually put on a pretty solid match. I really have nothing else to say, as I’m shocked at how good this was. Orton would end up defeating Mr. Money In The Bank in this particular encounter.

2.) WWE Tag Team Titles - The Prime Time Players vs. The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston with Xavier Woods): ***1/2

The Prime Time Players won the WWE Tag Team Titles back at Money In The Bank 2015. I thought this match was really good, and a great improvement over their previous match. Both team played their roles well, and there was some pretty exciting action throughout this one. Eventually, Titus O’Neil & Darren Young would eventually retain their titles. We’re two-for-two so far when it comes to good matches.

3.) Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns: ***1/2

Back at Money In The Bank 2015, Roman Reigns nearly had the Money In The Bank Ladder Match won, until Bray Wyatt interfered, and cost him the match. Now this was another match that I really wasn’t excited about coming into it, but much like the opener, this ended up being much better than I anticipated. We’re now three-for-three with good matches on this PPV. It went a little longer than it needed to, but for the most part, this was a solid match. These aren’t the most popular guys on the roster (Wyatt is, of course, the heel, while Reigns definitely gets a lot of boos despite being pushed as the next top babyface), but they stepped up here and surpassed my expectations. There were dull moments, but there were some good ones as well. Towards the end of the match, a man in a hoodie came from out of nowhere and attacked Reigns (I believe the referee was either down, or distracted). This allowed Bray Wyatt to capitalize, and he scored the victory with Sister Abigail for the win.

After the match, the man in the hoodie was revealed to be none other than Luke Harper. It looks like The Wyatt Family is getting back together...

On the RAW before this PPV, the Diva’s Division got some major additions, as Charlotte, Sasha Banks, & Becky Lynch were brought up from NXT and made their debuts on the Main Roster. This was part of Stephanie McMahon’s so-called “Diva’s Revolution” (which is a term that we would be force-fed over the next few months), and in this segment, she split the women into three groups: Team Bella, Team B.A.D. (Beautiful And Dangerous), and Team PCB (they were known as The Submission Sorority for about a week before they realized that it was a porn site, or something to that degree). This particular match was a late addition, but it was actually a solid match. It honestly might have been one of the better women’s match on WWE PPV in quite some time. Charlotte would get the win here, but the other two women involved, particularly Sasha Banks, looked good as well.

5.) WWE United States Title - John Cena vs. Kevin Owens: ****1/4

It’s a little disappointing that WWE has blown through this feud so quickly. It could have been better, and they could have done a lot more, if they stretched things out a little bit. Alas, here we have the third match between these two. Each men have a victory over the other, so this is the rubber match. While this wasn’t quite as good as their previous two matches, this was still a fantastic match. Easily the best match on the show. These two just work so well together. Cena & Owens were both great here, and we saw some awesome action throughout this match. Towards the end of the match, Cena actually hits an Attitude Adjustment from the second rope, only for Owens to kick out at two!! However, shortly thereafter, Cena would get Owens to tap out to the STFU to win the match and retains his U.S. Title.

Owens shows his frustration as Cena celebrates his victory. At the time, a lot of people (myself included) really didn’t know where Owens would go from here. We would find out, soon enough.

Before the Main Event, we have The Miz coming out. A Triple Threat Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title, with the champion, Ryback, defending against The Big Show & The Miz. However, a few days before the show, it was announced that Ryback was injured (I believe it was a staph infection, if I recall correctly), and the match had been postponed to a later date. The Miz makes fun of Ryback & The Big Show, which leads to the latter coming out. The Miz suggests that they should team up (reforming their infamous “Show-Miz” tag team), and The Big Show just knocks him out. A pretty pointless segment.

6.) WWE World Heavyweight Title - Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar: ***

Back at WrestleMania 31, Seth Rollins won the WWE World Heavyweight Title after cashing in his Money In The Bank Briefcase during the Brock Lesnar/Roman Reigns Main Event. Lesnar, the champion, wasn’t pinned in that match, and thus, has a legitimate claim to the title. Rollins dodged Lesnar the night after WrestleMania 31, and he’s been running from Lesnar since his return. Now, he has to defend his title against “The Beast Incarnate”. This match was…..an interesting one. It was a relatively short match, by WWE PPV Main Event standards (about nine minutes or so). Lesnar pretty much dominated Rollins for most of the match. “The Architect” was able to get some offense in, but much like other matches, Lesnar dominated. It appeared as though Lesnar had the match won after hitting a F5, but then the lights when out. When then came back on, Rollins was gone, and The Undertaker was in the ring!! In a surprising move, he actually kicks Lesnar below the belt, in a very heelish move (and that did cause a fair amount of boos). The Undertaker then hit a chokeslam, and then two Tombstone Piledrivers to close the show.

Overall: 7.75/10

During its brief existence, these Battleground PPVs haven’t exactly garnered a good reputation (I think they were both were considered one of the worst shows of the year in their respective years). However, this show seemed to break that trend a little bit. For the most part, this was actually a pretty solid card. All of the matches on the undercard were actually really good (including some interesting surprises), and Cena/Owens III, while not as good as the first two matches, was awesome. I think it might have cracked the 8.0 barrier for me if the Main Event had an actual finish. The return of The Undertaker was fascinating, to say the least. As a whole, this card wasn’t the most memorable show, and it won’t be a standout show by any means, but it was a definite improvement over previous Battleground installments.